Matt Godbolt sold me on Rust by showing me C++

The C++ code I write these days is actually pretty similar to Rust: everything is explicit, lots of strong types, very simple and clear lifetimes (arenas, pools), non-owning handles instead of pointers. The only difference in practice is that the build systems are different and that the Rust compiler is more helpful (both in catching bugs and reporting errors). Neither a huge deal if you have a proper build and testing setup and when everybody on your team is pretty experienced.

By the way, using "atoi" in a code snippet in 2025 and complaining that it is "not ideal" is, well, not ideal.

The C++ code I wrote 20 years ago also had strong typing and clear lifetimes.

Modern C++ has reduced a lot of typing through type inference, but otherwise the language is still strongly typed and essentially the same.